Suzuki Swace review: No thrills just economy and practicality

There are times when a car arrives in your driveway and you just know that you’re not going to like driving it. This week we test one such vehicle.

We reviewed the Suzuki Swace last year and were kind about it in the sense that we detailed how it was a sensible, safe family car option for those who want transport and not enjoyment in their lives. However, we didn’t say we particularly liked it – and after our second spin in it, we still don’t.

The Swace, you see, is not a car that Suzuki actually makes itself, rather it is a Toyota Corolla Sports Tourer with Suzuki badges and is actually something of a cynical exercise for the self-labelled ‘biggest small car maker in the world.’ 

Suzuki has something of an emissions problem – corporately. The combination of small capacity petrol and diesel engines it makes, along with a small number of hybrids, does not add up to much for the Japanese manufacturer and it therefore finds itself in an awkward spot as it finds itself falling foul of corporate emission regulations.

That being so, it needed access – and quick – to a car that has some environmental cred and the hybrid-engined Toyota Corolla estate was an immediate fix. So, a deal was done and – hey presto – the Corolla became a Swace and the car is now made alongside the Toyota at that manufacturer’s plant at Burnaston in the UK.

There is little or no difference between the two apart from the badging and one or two grille and front bumper changes. Otherwise, the two are identical.

Toyota does offer the option of a two-litre petrol hybrid engine, but with the Suzuki you can only have the older bur recently updated 1.8 unit with 100 bhp. That is paired with a 70 bhp electric motor and the combination of the two give you a 140 bhp total system output.

One of the big problems, we found, was the that the engine is matched with a hysterical CVT gearbox that’s not constantly variable enough for our tastes and gets as screechy as a boy band audience when you put it under the slighted pressure.

The battery here is relatively small, so the all-electric motoring experience is fleeting, but even so the top speed is 180 km/h and the 0-100 km/h dash has been improved from over 11 seconds to a slightly more dashing 9.4 and the claimed petrol consumption is in the region of 4.5 l/100 km (63.7 mpg), but if you’re in a hurry anywhere, this figure will fall to nearer 5.8 l/100 km (48.2 mpg).

Unfortunately for me an early morning hospital appointment meant a dash from our West Cork redoubt to the city and it wasn’t a pleasant experience. The wailing CVT presented little else but constantly high engine revs and, in truth, little forward progress.

Sure, you can hustle it along and it will corner well and generally handle like a good car should, but the accompanying soundtrack is tiresome at best and downright maddening at worst.

Like most hybrids, you truly have to relearn to drive and your approach to any journey must be terribly mindful of what you’re doing. To make longer journeys more palatable you’ve got to display a very light touch with the right foot, otherwise you’ll feel you’ve developed some awful form of tinnitus.

When you do adapt, the motorway end of the driving scale becomes a lot easier aurally and town driving becomes a doddle. However, if you hit a sudden rise in ground and need extra oomph you will immediately find you’ve a rowdy companion under the hood.

There are 16” wheels as standard and that makes the suspension feel somewhat better than might otherwise be the case and, as already pointed out, the ride and handling are of a surprisingly high order. On this front, things are calm and mature, although there is a bit of road noise to deal with, even if that is a welcome change from the hectoring coming from under the bonnet.

One thing you can applaud is the fact this is a very well-equipped bus and, as a sports tourer (or estate in everyman language) is very roomy and family oriented, without being an SUV. It is also terribly well equipped.

The interior is very inoffensive – verging on the bland – but it is very user friendly and everything in here is exactly the same as you’d get in the Corolla version. That means that while there are few super-dooper electronics, everything is arranged in a very driver-friendly fashion and there are plenty of actual buttons to control most things.

There is a new infotainment screen and digital instrumentation and while neither could be called innovative, both are easy to use and live with. And, annoying stuff, like the lane change warning system can be easily disabled.

The menus on offer might not allow a huge variety of choice, but as Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are at hand and most drivers will elect to use those for a majority of connectivity and infotainment functions. Surprisingly though, sat. nav. is not even an option.

You do get stuff like heated front seats, a parking camera, heated steering wheel and active cruise control, so it is fairly thoroughly specced.

Everything seems solidly built and well-screwed together which suggests the Suzuki will benefit from Toyota’s legendary bombproof-ness and that is a welcome thought for prospective buyers.

And if you’re a golfer, you’ll have no problem getting the clubs into the large boot space and your playing partners will have little complaint about the space available to them in the rear seats, even if headroom is a little tight for taller people.

The bottom line is that the Swace now is a little more appealing than previously, but if you like your motoring and enjoy a thrill or two in the process, then you probably won’t find it here. One the other hand, if your only aim is to have a car which is comfortable, practical, economic and well-equipped, then you have a car which will fulfil your needs.

Oddly, perhaps, the Swace is slightly more expensive than its Toyota counterpart and one would have thought that in order to make it more appealing, Suzuki would have trimmed the list price to something lower than what the equivalent Corolla costs.

Sure, it is upgraded on the engine front and on the inside, but it still does not present as anything that will get your blood flowing faster. If anything, in fact, the CVT system could make your blood boil instead.

We knew at the outset we would not particularly like this car – and we were right.